Airbus sees supply chain recovery as it targets 870 deliveries

KUALA LUMPUR: Airbus is confident that its supply chain is showing signs of recovery as the aircraft manufacturer works towards its target of delivering around 870 commercial aircraft this year.

Airbus Asia Pacific president Anand Stanley said the company is seeing improvements in multiple areas of its supply chain as it ramps up production.

"We are growing and stabilising our supply chain and we see improvements in multiple areas, which are facilitating the significant rate increase.

"We're also working closely and intensively with our partners, and the overall situation is much brighter now, and the number of irritants are getting fewer and better managed," he told Business in an exclusive interview recently.

In the recent Airbus half year 2026 results, the European planemaker said that it had delivered 351 commercial aircraft in the first half of 2026, up from 306 aircraft in the same period last year.

The deliveries comprised 44 A220s, 271 A320 Family aircraft, 10 A330s and 26 A350s.

Airbus chief executive officer Guillaume Faury said the company's first-half performance mainly reflects the higher level of commercial aircraft deliveries.

"Our focus on steady execution is paying off as demonstrated by strong deliveries in Q2. This fuels our confidence in our future performance, as reflected in the recently-communicated mid-term outlook," he said in a statement.

Gross commercial aircraft orders totalled 886 in the first half of 2026, compared with 494 aircraft in the same period last year.

Net orders stood at 821 aircraft after cancellations, while Airbus' commercial aircraft order backlog amounted to 9,222 aircraft at the end of June 2026.

According to Airbus' latest orders and deliveries data, the company delivered 89 aircraft to 49 customers in June 2026.

Stanley said Airbus delivered 81 aircraft to 45 customers in May 2026.

"This delivery number figure is nearly 60 per cent higher than May 2025 and when you look at the entire year of 2026 there has been an eight per cent increase in deliveries in 2026 versus the year before of 2025."

"This demonstrates a solid progress on the ramp up, so given this trajectory, we continue to work towards our target of around 870 aircraft this year," he said.

Airbus said its 2026 guidance assumes no additional disruptions to global trade or the world economy, air traffic, the supply chain, its internal operations and its ability to deliver products and services.

On that basis, the company is targeting around 870 commercial aircraft deliveries in 2026.

Despite the improvement, Stanley says Airbus is still working through supply chain constraints in several areas.

"We continue to see some supply chain issues on which we are working with our customers and our partners, but as I mentioned, the overall situation is much brighter now with fewer known irritants."

"They continue to be topics that we are working on, such as cabin equipment, aerostructures, and engines," he said.

Stanley said Airbus is also continuing with its broader production ramp-up plans across its aircraft programmes.

The A220 ramp-up is ongoing with Airbus continuing to target a monthly production rate of 13 aircraft in 2028.

For the A320 Family, Airbus expects to reach a rate of between 70 and 75 aircraft a month by the end of 2027, before stabilising at rate 75 after next year.

The company is also targeting to reach a rate of five aircraft per month for the A330 programme in 2029 and rate 12 aircraft monthly for the A350 programme in 2028.

"We continue to work beyond that towards our overall ramp-up plans and rates, such as stabilising at a rate of 75 for the A320 family beyond 2027 and to reach the rate of 13 per month for the A220 family in 2028, to reach the rate of five aircraft per month for the A330 in 2029 and to reach the rate of 12 aircraft per month for the A350 family in 2028," Stanley said.

He added that the ramp-up is tied to Airbus' work with suppliers and partners to meet long-term aircraft demand, particularly in Asia.

"All these are a result of our efforts to work with our partners in stabilising our supply chain more than anything else to meet the demand, especially in Asia for the 20,000 aircraft that we have to meet over the next couple of decades," he said.

Stanley also said Airbus is seeing strong order momentum from Asia-Pacific.

He added that Airbus recorded 815 gross orders in the first five months of 2026, including 379 orders in May alone.

"A large number of these orders, over 50 per cent of the global Airbus orders of 815, and the majority of the 379, are all from the greater Asia Pacific region, including China," he said.